Top Keywords

Our Work

EU policy is central to progress in combating climate change both in Europe and globally. The climate programme engages in key contemporary issues, notably international negotiations, the role of bioenergy, strategies for transport, funding and the EU Budget, energy conservation and the challenge of adaptation.

Climate change is a complex problem that requires a coordinated policy response. As such, climate change crops up in all work areas at IEEP, from dealing with issues of environmental governance in relation to international negotiations, or in terms of understanding the links to land use. Together we are able to bring a range of disciplinary perspectives to the challenges of climate change mitigation and adaptation.

To reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases causing global temperature increase, well-targeted mitigation measures are essential. IEEP has experience in evaluating the effectiveness of such measures, in particular by examining their national implementation in Member States.

The transport and energy sectors are the biggest contributors of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the EU so naturally a lot of our work centres on policies regulating these areas. Regarding transport, we were influential in the development of the recent legislation on limiting the CO2 emissions from cars and we are currently very much involved in the definition of sustainability criteria for biofuels. We have also worked on environmental labelling and consumer information on new cars; the links between climate change, transport and obesity; and the need to reform the existing perverse economic incentives that encourage car use.

The energy sector is key to reducing both CO2 emissions and resource use: bringing down energy consumption through demand management and improved efficiency, well-planned renewable energy technologies, sustainably implemented bioenergy and other emerging mitigation technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS).

In addition to efforts on mitigation, society must learn to cope with the impacts to which we have already committed ourselves as a result of past emissions. IEEP follows the evolution of policy for adaptation to climate change. Our current work in this area is concerned with improving Europe’s capacity to account for the cost of adaptation and related public spending, filling an important gap in the knowledge base for adaptation policy.

Addressing climate change costs money. IEEP is working to understand how climate change priorities can be reflected in EU spending, in particular how the concept of ‘climate proofing’ can be operationalised in the EU budget.

Climate policy and land use is an area where our work is rapidly expanding. IEEP’s capacity to think across sectoral and environmental policy domains enables us to consider conflicting policy objectives, such as those on bioenergy, soil carbon sequestration, urban planning and the EU’s impacts beyond its borders.

IEEP also has educational charity status. We have experience of training and capacity building on a wide range of topics. Notably, we have been very active in supporting the European Parliament in its role in EU climate policy.

The Sourcebook provides a practical reference document on applicable EU environmental legislation, practices and standards which need to be taken into account in the planning and development of projects supported by Banks that have signed the ‘European Principles for the Environment'.

This presentation analyses the Commission proposals on the 2014-2020 Multi-annual Financial Framework unveiled on 29 June 2011. More specifically, it identifies opportunities and challenges for the financing of climate change and the environment in the future EU budget.

New report by IEEP and Öko Institut explores how the additional effort of moving to a 30 % EU-wide greenhouse gas emission reduction target could be distributed among Member States, and the resources that could be mobilised to support such a move.

Improved resource efficiency is considered the core environmental challenge alongside climate change. A new IEEP paper reviews the mixed results of previous EU Natural Resources policy and suggests a number of ways forward.

The EU is committed to building improved resource efficiency into its economic strategy, starting with a “roadmap” this year. A new paper from the Institute sets out the challenges, reviews the mixed results of previous EU policy in this area and suggests a number of ways forward. Both a broad vision and an array of practical policy initiatives are required.

More than 70 participants from European governments, the European Commission and other stakeholders gathered in Brussels on 28-29 March 2011 to discuss how the post-2013 EU budget should deal with investment needs in climate change and managing natural resources during a two-day workshop co-organised by IEEP together with the Dutch and Belgian governments.

This report advances the conceptual understanding of the concept of climate proofing the EU budget and offers ways to operationalise it in the debate on the post-2013 Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF).

Bogdan Atanasiu’s analysis of National Renewable Energy Action Plans reveals that more than half of the renewable energy which EU Member States expect to consume annually by 2020 will consist of bioenergy.

A new IEEP report analyses the indirect land use change (ILUC) impact of the substantial additional biofuel usage that will be generated up to 2020 by the targets under the EU renewable energy Directive. The report has recently been updated to include all 27 NREAPs.

A new IEEP report analyses the indirect land use change (ILUC) impact of the substantial additional biofuel usage that will be generated up to 2020 by the targets under the EU renewable energy Directive...